Give a Little Time to Me
by kevinmcwanky
Summary: Artie's feeling miserable after he injured himself while going up the handicapped ramp and falling because of the ice, but after he's given the opportunity to walk again and given the consequences of his wish, would he take it or would he prefer to stay on his wheelchair?


******Author's Note:** While watching the 'Glee, Actually' episode, I was struck with quartie feelings because of Artie's flashback. This is set somewhere between Season 3, during the 7-week break after the 'On My Way' episode. My brain managed to write a way so the storyline would still fit.

* * *

******–**give a little time to me, we'll burn this out–

"Just… I wish I was never in that dumb chair," Artie told Finn as he lay in the nursery bed, waiting for his mom to pick him up.

It was one of the rare cases in which it had snowed in April, so when Artie was trying to go up the ramp, he fell because his wheelchair didn't have the right equipment to roll up a frozen surface. It was one of those days where he really felt helpless just because he couldn't walk.

_I'm not even worth it; I literally can't do anything but be a burden for people because they need to take care of me. I wish I could feel for the first time what would be to be able to walk like everyone else, to be able to dance just like Mike, to be able to do things on my own… _Artie's mind wondered off before he fell asleep.

When he woke up, the first thing he did was look at his feet. This time, he actually could feel his legs, and when he tried to move his feet, he could feel them. There was no greater joy to him at the moment; he felt blessed.

His first idea was to get up from where he was lying and go to find all the Glee club members, but as he ran to the classroom, he saw how Kurt was being slammed against the locker doors by none other than Puck, Finn, Mike and Sam. He tried to stop them, but his words were useless as they continued to slam Kurt. They eventually stopped and proceeded to leave when the bell rang.

He eventually found out that in fact, this was his senior year; he stumbled into Rory, who explained everything to him. Artie never signed up for glee club in his freshmen year. He hadn't befriended Tina, neither Kurt, so having a glee club was pointless. Mr. Schue still was the Spanish teacher, but he was an alcoholic; he was still married to Terri, and Ms. Pillsbury was nowhere to be found.

Kurt, Finn, Puck, Mike and Brittany never graduated, as they all didn't reach enough points to do so. The only ones that graduated were Mercedes, Santana and Rachel, the latter was now working at the McKinley library.

He was confused, because he never thought that everyone would end up like this if it wasn't for glee club.

As Rory told him more stuff about the current state of everyone at McKinley, he realized there was still one person that he needed to know what had happened with her; Quinn.

"If you said that Mercedes, Santana and Rachel graduated, then what happened to Quinn?" Artie popped up the question to Rory.

"Follow me," Rory told Artie and they started walking up to the back entrance. A wheelchair like the one he used to have was there with a white rose on top of it.

"Is that mine?" Artie asked, still confused why Rory hadn't answered his previous question.

"No. It's Quinn's." The moment those words were out of Rory's mouth, Artie was frightened. What had gone wrong?

"But – how?" he managed to stutter the words out of his mouth.

"Without the encouragement and support from you and her friends in glee, Quinn was never able to walk again after the accident," Rory pointed out.

"Wait a minute," Artie remembered now that Quinn was on a car accident not ever a week ago while she was on her way to Finn and Rachel's wedding, but he hadn't heard about her ever since he last visited in the hospital. "If there's no glee club, then there's no finchel wedding for her to drive to, so–"

"Quinn texts and drives in every timeline, Artie," Rory interrupted him.

"Okay, then why isn't she on it?" Artie asked, still trying to collect his thoughts. The only thing that he wanted in that moment was to see her, to give her the encouragement she needed so she could walk again, just like him.

"She died."

Out of all the things that Artie was expecting to hear, the thought of Quinn dying never crossed his mind. Quinn Fabray, a girl that had overcome herself during the years he had known her, a girl who was ambitious and a fighter, was now dead?

"How?" he barely whispered, a few tears were threatening to fall from his eyes at the news.

"Of a broken heart. Much like her body, her spirit never recovered," Rory finished saying, and as he noticed Artie's state right now, he proceeded to turn around and leave Artie alone.

Artie took some steps in the wheelchair's direction, and stopped in front of it to pick up the white rose. He admired it for a few seconds and then he proceeded to take in the smell. As cheesy as it sounded, he realized seconds later that the rose smelled just the way Quinn's perfume did.

"I've got to get back," he said to himself.

"Rory!" he started yelling, the echo of his voice sounding on the empty hall, but nobody replied. He kept trying a few more times, but he didn't get any response.

He sat again on the wheelchair, thinking that maybe it will take him back to the present. He didn't wish to be here, being able to walk but knowing that the people he considered his friends are either douches or strangers, and that the girl he had been crushing on ever since his freshmen year was dead.

"I can fix it," he whispered to himself as he slowly closed his eyes for a little bit, and his memory faded to black.

* * *

"Dude, wake up! Your mom's here," Artie heard Finn's voice, and he immediately woke up, breathing heavily. He looked around the nursery room and realized everything was back to normal.

"You know, I could use some help here?" he said after he had calmed down.

"Sorry Artie," Finn started as he carried Artie to drop him back again in his wheelchair. "I know it sucks being in this chair sometimes."

"For better or for worse, this chair's part of me. It's made me who I am," he said as Finn rolled him down to the back entrance so he could leave.

* * *

Artie remembered the first time he went to visit her at the hospital. Her hospital room was baby blue, and the blinds were closed. There she lay with her eyes closed, on the somewhat lumpy bed, the white hospital sheets covering her legs. He felt somewhat different this time.

"Quinn?" his voice was barely a whisper as he rolled closer to her bed. Slowly, she opened her eyes, the bright light hurting her eyesight at first.

"Artie? Why – what are you doing here?"

"I guess you could use some company," he half-smiled as he stared into her green eyes.

"I'm glad you're here," she smiled back. "Apart from Rachel's visits to assure herself that I'm still alive, you're the only other person that has came back to visit me one more time."

"How have you been?"

"I've been fine overall, I could've been dead, so I'm not complaining at all," she chuckled at her own bitter comment, but Artie's eyebrows furrowed at it. "Sometimes I even seriously wonder if I'm gonna recover at all."

"Hey, look at me," Artie said grabbing Quinn's hand. "You'll recover. You're Quinn Fabray, for God's sake! You've been born a fighter; you have overcome bigger problems too, like being pregnant."

"I don't know Artie," she said looking away a little bit. "I don't really know if I can do this on my own this time, you know? Even the strongest people need help sometimes."

"That's why I'm here; to help you with whatever you need, remember? I've said it once when you were pregnant, now I'll say it again," Quinn couldn't help but look at Artie. She wasn't really expecting anybody to volunteer their help while she struggled into yet another difficult step of her life.

"I'm really grateful for having you here right now," she took his hand and she intertwined her fingers with his. He stayed for a couple more hours until she fell asleep due to the painkillers the doctors were still giving her.

Right now he felt satisfied with himself; even though sometimes he was miserable in that wheelchair, now he'd know that at least he could bring joy into somebody's life, plus that he could reunite a small group of people with different personalities together.

When he was rolling out the door, he took one more glance back to see Quinn's sleeping face, smiling, and the white, beautiful rose on the small bedside table. That moment was when he realized that he was worth it. _This _was worth it.

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**Author's Note: **Hope y'all have liked it!


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